Once Upon A Time
by Emily-Of-Midgard
Summary: Victoria's parents never told her fairytales, but her sister once did. Then she went to live her own fairytale, except it lacked a happy ending. My two-shot head canon on Emily's past life.


Title: Once Upon A Time

Summary: Victoria's parents never told her fairytales, but her sister once did. Then she went to live her own fairytale, except it lacked a happy ending. My two-shot head canon on Emily's past life.

Warnings: Character death, head canon

AN: It's almost three thirty AM where I am, and this seems like a good idea.

* * *

The book of fairy tales was hard, large and quite dusty. It had sat on the shelf in the Everglot family's library for years, waiting for a child to come along who was tall enough to take it. Victoria was not that child, as she was very small for her age. She had stared at it for a long time, not being able to read the title but knowing what it was. Hildegard had once read her a story from it when she was younger and all Victoria wanted was for somebody to notice her and take the book down from the shelf to read her a story.

She must have sat there for hours until somebody noticed the normally withdrawn child was not in her room. Victoria was able to tell who the person that was coming down the hall was before they came in. Only one person had footsteps that sounded more like a dance then walking and only one person in the entire stuffy Everglot household wore daisy perfume. Her sister, who was eighteen to Victoria's three, walked into the room, calling out for her in a singsong voice. She made her way over to Victoria and followed her line of sight.

"Oh, is that what you want?" She said, looking down at Victoria. Victoria nodded. She was very shy of her older sister who had recently gotten into a screaming match with her parents. If Victoria wasn't already wary of her larger than life (and larger than her) sibling, she was now after seeing the way she had looked after she had been told she could never see 'that man' (as their mother called him) again.

"Fairytales, eh? You're just like me when I was young, Victoria. Daddy used to read fairytales to me all the time." She sighed wistfully as if remembering something Victoria was far too young to remember or understand. All Victoria knew was the father who always seemed disappointed in the fact she wasn't a boy, the fact she was pale and sickly, in _her. _

"Oh well, you can't win all wars I suppose. Say, do you want me to read you a fairytale. I have some time before I have to go look for something." Victoria barely had time to nod before both she and the book were swept up in a tornado of energy and daises. The next thing Victoria knew, she was seated on the desk and her sister was sitting in her father's chair. When Victoria gave her a worried look, her sister only giggled and winked.

"It'll be our little secret, eh? Now, what one do you want to hear?" She opened the book to the table of contents and Victoria peered down at it. She ran her fingers down the page in a serious way that made her sister laugh. She finally chose one at random; making a show that she had done it on purpose. Her sister smiled, and for a second Victoria thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Good choice, Victoria. 'Sleeping Beauty' was always my favorite." She then launched into one of the most exciting things Victoria's young ears had ever seen. She watched in barely contained excitement as her sister spun a tale of such drama and romance that she didn't even notice that an hour had passed. After her sister had finished the story, she launched into several more. After they had worked their way through the better portion of the book, Emily stopped.

"Say, Victoria. These stories are all well and good, but do you want to hear a real life fairytale? Of course, I'll throw a few bits in to make it like the ones we read. Would you like that?" If truth be told, Victoria wanted to hear her sister tell the story of 'Cinderella'. It was her favorite, but she couldn't say no to the sheer excitement on her sister's face. She nodded.

"Well, once upon a time in a dreary kingdom, the king and queen had a daughter. Now, this daughter grew up and met a charming prince. He was the kindest and most generous man who ever walked the earth but the king and queen," Here, her sister scowled for a moment, then smiled again, this time more falsely as if she was trying to pick her words carefully. "Only wanted to keep their daughter safe from everything, evil or not, and they would not let them be together. So the princess and the prince hatched a plan. They would run away!"

Victoria gasped despite herself. The story reminded her of several ones they had read but her sister's animation in telling it made her like it more than the others combined.

"What happened next?" She said in a tiny voice. Her sister smiled and opened her mouth but at that moment, their father called. Her sister sighed, and promised to return later to tell the story, and left. Victoria sat there for a few moments and then she and the book left the room.

She didn't see her sister again until later that night. Victoria had fallen asleep looking at the pictures and was a tad surprised to be awoken. She was in for a bigger shock when she saw it was her sister, looking more radiant than ever in her mother's wedding dress. The dress, which Victoria had seen once in a moment when her mother seemed lest frosty and allowed her to touch the glass beads and lacework, was a beautiful thing. Victoria imagined it looked prettier on her than it did her mother, but at that moment, she only cared that her sister was doing something that could end very badly for her.

"You mustn't say anything, Victoria, or I can't tell you the end of the story. Do you want to hear it?" Victoria nodded, too stunned to say anything else. Her sister smiled.

"The princess and the prince, as you know, hatched a plan. They would run away and return later, when the king and the queen had gotten used to the idea. All decked out in jewels," Here, her sister extended her arms to show that they were covered in jewels Victoria couldn't even dream about and that her left hand held a sack of gold. "The princess left. Much like I must do. Victoria, please know that I love you and mother and father. I will be back soon, I hope."

"Will…will the princess have her happy ending?" Victoria asked, tears welling up in her eyes. Her sister nodded, blinking back tears of her own.

"The happiest. Goodbye, Victoria." She said, walking over to the door. It was only after she left that Victoria whispered a "Goodbye Emily."

* * *

She never came back.

There was a night, not so long after the night the princess fled that the king and queen were called to the forest. Victoria had hidden in the hallway to see her mother come back with silent tears falling down her face and her father wearing a look that nobody had ever seen before. A look of defeat and, dare they say it, regret.

From that day on, the princess's name was never spoken again. Her portrait was taken down and hidden in a tower the likes of Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel had never seen. Victoria eventually out grew fairytales as she outgrew the dim memories of the sister who had disappeared from view. On quite days when the wind would blow just right and she could smell daisies from the field just outside of town, she could only remember the beginning of the fairytale about how the princess had believed so strongly in love. She could never remember the ending.

She hoped it was a happy one.


End file.
